you were much calmer!"


"It's not because of him, but because of that ..." shivered Kalikor, bent his arm gently and slowly stretched his index finger in the direction in which it was completely dark. Warior was about to turn around when his brother held him back:


"Are you crazy? Don't turn around!" After a short breather, he asked whispering and in a calm voice: “What do you see, Kalikor?” He did not answer immediately but pulled the allies even closer together in a small circle.


"There is a man sitting in the shade over there!" he whispered as if it were the most terrible thing in the world, but in a certain sense he was right, because apart from them, the host's family and the man there was no other soul in the room.

"So what is so special about it?" the blonde asked softly and gave a slight shrug.


"He has such a special skin ..." he paused, "... as if burned ... and the fire of the earth shines in his eyes ..." Everyone looked at each other questioningly and moved back to their first, bored one Position. Each of them knew what it was now, immediately Gisildur fingered a piece of parchment, a glass of ink and a quill and the one with the second sword took it in his hand. After a few minutes he had scrawled some almost illegible words on it and handed the devices to whoever they belonged to. Warior immediately glanced at the piece of paper and immediately forgot everything, because this scribe probably had to be under so much pressure that the letters resulted in a completely different word, but you could tell from Gisildur that he could read it anyway. He briefly corrected the words, passed the slip of paper around and everyone knew what to look out for and what to fear.The creepy creature in the corner was probably a creature from hell and it was just reaching for a canteen with black, spider-skinned fingers and greedily drank from it. A faint murmur accompanied his subsequent burp and his figure was framed by a black rag, which obviously served as a cloak and covered his face except for one of the two red-hot eye sparks, the second one could only guess and some swallowed. Isribus would be here soon and her round would have been blown, so the meeting point had to be changed. The brave Gisildur glanced at a mirror set deep into the wall, the two of the Order of the Dragon nodded, said goodbye and hurriedly left the room. The shadow creature was about to jump up, it had already leaned on its two charred arms when it thought better of it and let itself fall back onto the bench. Where it was sitting it was quite dark and far away from the other people, so that no one would really notice what was happening with him, but Kalikor was lucky enough to have been blessed with eagle eyes and had everything laid out right away.Before Gisildur really started, Warior just looked on in amazement the whole time, he beckoned the skinny landlord over. He leaned down to him with a tray on his arm and the warrior whispered imploringly in his ear:


“Who's that there?” The host of the house reacted very differently than Warior had imagined and only replied coolly and almost pale as a corpse:


"That's death, he's here to get me! So leave him alone, I don't want any fuss in my little bar!" Immediately after this information he disappeared back into the kitchen Gisildur frowned:


“I think he didn't understand my question!” A little later he finally said to Warior and Savamir:


"Be ready! The escape is not over yet!" he put in a whisper, "Outside the other two are waiting for Isribus! They'll give us a sign in a few minutes! See?" he asked Warior again, "The mirror up there is actually a window.You can only see in from the kitchen! At this moment the host is observing us! Badenius will turn him off and take his place. We must not draw any additional attention to ourselves and we will now flee separately again, as we did at first from the castle! "


"You mean there is a scout?" Warior asked interested and leaned closer to him.


"Exactly!" he agreed and nodded. “Come on, Savamir, you first!” After some time had passed and they had exchanged more telling glances, the named person suddenly got up and headed for the door. Now that the majority of the strange boys had disappeared outside, the creature also made its way upright and light-footed outside and did not look at the other knights.


"Damn it!" Gisildur whistled angrily through his teeth, "The guy got wind and is now waiting for us in the forest. I hope the others are well hidden!"Warior hadn't said anything because there were large beads of sweat on his forehead and if he had spoken, one would have definitely heard his fearful tone. Almost trembling, he stood up and pushed the simple, wooden chair aside, creaking.


"What you up to?" the older one whispered, horrified, and also seemed rather unsettled. Warior did not answer, left the building through the back kitchen, Gisildur was unable to shout anything to his younger brother and stood stock still. The landlord was hunched over in a corner of the room, his apron stained with blood and his legs strangely twisted. So the others were already here, he thought, at least a little reassured, and he literally felt that his body was much too tense to react properly. His hair was completely sticky with sweat, was tight, Warior 's breath came in gales and fearful he looked away from the corpse. He put his hand on the ajar door and heard a low but urgent squeak, inwardly his fear exploded and he closed his eyes, breathing deeply.For the moment of darkness he gathered strength to open the door without hearing a loud noise again. He suddenly realized that he had just heard something scratch in the sand and carefully opened his eyelids to look through the crack in the door. What he saw were only leaves and ferns slightly stirred by the wind and again his heart began to beat faster. Everything around him became quiet, only the heart muscle pumped what he could give and the throbbing inside got louder and louder, so that he could no longer concentrate on the outside. As if in a blind trauma, he pushed the door open with his shoulder and stumbled, almost fell, into the cool grass. It was much cooler than inside, dangerous shadows lurked from everywhere and his heart skipped for what seemed an endlessly long minute. When he could no longer stand on his feet, he just let go, relaxed his muscles without a will and slumped into the grass without making an unnecessary noise.A fog of unconsciousness spread inside him and paralyzed his thoughts, the window to the outside world was closed.




How long have he been here? He didn't know it stayed a few seconds until the realization shot through his head like an arrow that he had slumped behind the farmer's kitchen and had no idea what had happened next. What did Gisildur say? In the forest always in an easterly direction, he remembered that and so he carefully sat up and a slight shiver shook him. While he was trying to regain his composure, he saw a shadowy movement in the bushes in front of him. He had just looked elsewhere, but from the corner of his eye the movement seemed slow and far reaching. There! He just thought he had seen a red glow between the estuary of an oak and switched abruptly. At first he just stumbled away, but then he shook his head and dug into the ground holding his toes with every step so as not to tip over again.A hazy growl came from the bushes behind him and this time he was panicked. He rushed blindly towards the trunks, sat over a stump, and crawled hastily under a half-rotten, transverse trunk. Branches clapped his face like lashes and he just ran over smaller plants. He breathed hastily and jumped over a small ditch, always believing the enemy was on his neck. Sharp thorns tore at his clothes and finally he tripped over a large root and twisted his body so that he slid to the ground behind a bush. He used the moment to breathe freely, to gather new strength for the further sprint and to keep an eye out for his pursuer. With a quick look up he recognized the circular moon, which, on closer inspection, always moved a bit. Only now did his wounds start to hurt and he noticed a burning graze on his knee, which hadn't even bothered him before.It must have been the adrenaline rush, thought Warior, moaning softly and sucking in the cool night air sharply through his teeth. Carefully he leaned on the tree as he got up and clenched his teeth hard because the wound really hurt. The first few steps he tried to take went wrong, because each time the injury contracted a lot and began to bleed when he pulled his knee up. Would he still be of use to his brothers in this way? At the thought he thought of his magic weapon and with a sure gesture he realized that it was still where it belonged. Leaning on a gnarled branch, he began to hobble up a small path, stooped.